An in-flight Air New Zealand safety video, which had been branded sexist, has been replaced.

The film featured models dressed in bikinis demonstrating safety procedures with airline equipment.

Australian Natasha Young began a Change.org petition which called on the airline to stop using the video.

"This video completely disregards passengers who find it offensive," she said.

The petition against it got more than 11,000 signatures.

"A safety video is to alert passengers on what to do in an emergency; it should not be an excuse to objectify the sexualized female body," added Young.

The petition heard from concerned parents about their children's "impressionable nature", from people who found it difficult to watch because of "religious beliefs" and from people with body issues.

The women, seen relaxing around a pool and on a beach, are well known models like Christie Brinkley, Hannah Davis, Jessica Gomes, Ariel Meredith and Chrissy Teigen.

They show passengers what to do in an emergency situation.

Procedures include how to inflate a life vest and exit the plane.

In one shot two models are seen gazing at themselves in a mirror after putting on oxygen masks.

The four-minute video, uploaded to YouTube in February, has have been viewed more than 5.4 million times.

Air New Zealand insisting the removal of a video was a scheduled change.

A spokeswoman said: "We typically change out our safety videos every few months."

"As scheduled we began the process of phasing in the Bear Essentials of Safety video featuring Bear Grylls on our fleet around a week ago and this process is almost complete."

BBC